Research has shown that the success of human interpersonal relationships depends on complex interactions between a large number of variables including, but not limited to, personality, socioeconomic status, religion, appearance, ethnic background, energy level, education, interests and appearance. Matching services have developed effective systems that analyze these variables to identify and match people who have the potential to establish a successful relationship. A well-known example of such a service is eHarmony, Inc. (which can be found at www.eharmony.com). A matching service generally collects and stores data to create a “profile” for each user. The profile includes a number of factors potentially relevant to establishing a successful interpersonal relationship with that user. The matching service then correlates that user's profile with others in its database to assess which profiles are compatible, i.e., which users have the potential for a successful relationship when matched.
The variables used by these matching services are generally self-identified—i.e. users are required to explicitly indicate the existence and/or extent of interests, traits, qualities and/or preferences that they identify in themselves or that they desire in a potential match. For example, a user may be required to indicate his or her preference for action movies on a scale of 1-5, or whether he or she desires a smoker or non-smoker. While such self-identified forms data are useful, additional insight may be gained from non-self-identified forms of data to assess whether a prospective match may have the potential to establish a successful relationship. Accordingly, alternative systems and methods for facilitating interpersonal relationships may be desirable.